Monday, March 31, 2008

Memoirs of a Muse, by Lara Vapnyar


Our April's pick will continue to explore the themes of literary dreams, the origin of inspiration, search for self-actualization, and immigration (voluntary exile, if you please).

"As a fatherless girl in Moscow, Tatiana becomes fascinated by the great Russian writers, especially Dostoyevsky. As an adolescent, she is told by a lecherous teacher that she will become "the muse to a great man." When she immigrates to America to pursue a graduate degree in history, she chooses to fulfill her destiny as a muse instead, readily abandoning the stifling immigrant enclave in Brighton Beach for a writer's Central Park apartment." Needless to say, her chosen object - a young New Yorker who is more interested in fashion, dining out, and TV - is not exactly the budding Dostoyevsky. The book is allegedly a great parody of a self-obsessed male artist, as well as a "withering critique of the immigrant experience".

The book club will be hosted in Greenpoint - one of Brooklyn's staunchingly Slavic neighborhoods. Being myself a recent (and Russian) arrival in New York, my curiosity is peaked both in regards to the book and to the menu:

-delicious blinis
-herring
-potatoes
-pickles
-shots of ice-cold vodka
-horseradish martinis
....and more

Where and when: April 27, 1:00pm, 146 Milton Street, #2, Brooklyn (Take the G train to Greenpoint Avenue - but check the MTA weekend advisories first...)


2 comments:

Ami said...

Hooray! Our first lady writer!

Shek Baker said...

Hooray! Eastern European food!